EDWARDS, Weldon Nathaniel, a Representative from North Carolina; born in Gaston, Northampton
County, N.C., January 25, 1788; attended Warrenton Academy; studied law; was
admitted to the bar in 1810 and commenced practice in Warrenton, N.C.; member
of the State house of representatives in 1814 and 1815; elected as a Republican
to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
Nathaniel Macon; reelected as a Republican to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and
Seventeenth Congresses, elected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth
Congress, and as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress; and served from
February 7, 1816, to March 3, 1827; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the
Department of the Treasury (Eighteenth Congress), Committee on Public
Expenditures (Nineteenth Congress); declined to be a candidate for reelection
in 1826; returned to his plantation; member of the State senate 1833-1844;
member of the State constitutional convention in 1835; again elected to the
State senate in 1850 and chosen its president; president of the State secession
convention in 1861; died in Warren County, N.C., December 18, 1873; interment
in a private cemetery at his home, Poplar Mount, about twelve miles from
Warrenton, Warren County, N.C.